Shinnie ready to face Shinnie when Town head to the Rams

It may well happen as early as Saturday, October 5 at Pride Park, with Graeme now a Derby County player after joining the Rams from Aberdeen recently.

The pair have never faced each other professionally before, although they were in the same Inverness Caledonian Thistle team between 2011-13, until Andrew opted to venture down south and join Birmingham City.

On the prospect of facing his sibling, two years his junior, the Hatters’ Shinnie said: “Obviously the Derby one I’m looking forward to with my brother just signing there.

“It’s going to be great to come up against him, Derby are a massive club, a great stadium and it will be great to come up against my brother.

“I’m just looking forward to seeing him doing really well for Derby and hopefully the two games will be great games.”

The pair might have missed out on such a meeting with the Rams just 90 minutes away from the Premier League last term, having reached the Championship play-off final.

However, they were beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa at Wembley, as Shinnie continued: “If Derby had been promoted it would have been great for Graeme, but I was kind of looking forward to playing against him this season.

“So if they didn’t go up, that was going to happen, they haven’t and I’m looking forward to playing him.

“It will be two good games for my mum and dad to come down and watch as well, two of their sons playing together.”

A return to St Andrews to face a Blues side where Shinine spent four years, playing 75 times, was also high on his agenda, as he said: “I looked for that one, that will be exciting going back to St Andrews and seeing some old friends there and some of the staff that I got on really well with.

“They’re a great club as well and it’s just a great league to be a part of.”